12.08.2010

If you’ve been around here a bit before, you probably already know that I’m a full time retail slave. For the past 10 years I’ve worked in retail, the first 7 spent playing all day in a toy store, and the last 3 shelving books in a bookstore. 10 years. 10 holiday shopping seasons. 10 years of picking out gifts for other people’s family members while making barely enough money to buy presents for my own. So why do I continue to do it? Because I enjoy it. For the most part. But for those times that I just want to scream and throw myself over our second floor railing at work, I make cookies instead.

These cookies are perfect for relieving holiday stress. Mostly because you get to break things. The recipe calls for both crushed up buttery after-dinner mints and crushed peppermints or candy canes. So when you’re feeling a bit of holiday rage, just throw some mints in a zip-top bag, wrap it in a kitchen towel, find something heavy, and start smashing away! Circled the parking lot for 20 minutes only to have someone steal the spot you were waiting on? SMACK! That last item on your list is sold out everywhere? BANG! Get yelled at for not figuring out the book someone wants when they know neither the title, nor author, or even what it’s about, just that it was on Oprah a couple months ago. WHACK! I’m telling you. Great stress relief. And if that’s not enough… you get to eat cookies when you’re done.

We had something similar to these in our café around the holidays last year, and they were DELICIOUS! I’d go down almost every day on my break to grab another. When the holidays were over and they’d moved on to the next seasonal treat, I was determined to make my own. How hard could it be? It was really just a sugar cookie in bar form with some mints mixed in and topped with a peppermint frosting. Well it took me a whole year to get around to it, but I finally did it! They’re not exact replicas of the café bars, but they’re still pretty darn tasty. Sugary sweet with a cool peppermint kick, they’re the perfect pick me up after a stressful day.

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Grease a large 11X17-inch rimmed baking sheet. Line with parchment paper and grease paper as well; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add in vanilla. Add in flour mixture, mixing until just combined. Stir in butter mints.
4. Spread batter evenly onto prepared baking sheet, smoothing top. Bake until light golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
5. While cookie is cooling, make frosting; in the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add peppermint extract and salt. Add confectioners’ sugar, a little at a time, beating until well combined. Add milk, a tablespoon at a time, until frosting is smooth and fluffy. Add a few drops of food coloring if desired.
6. Spread frosting over cooled cookie, sprinkle with crushed peppermints, then cut into bars.

Looking for more cookie ideas? Keep checking back for more of the 12 Cookies of Christmas!

These were so delicious! I couldn't stop eating them once I started. The mints were really fun to crack. I couldn't find buttermints in the store, so I substituted them with sweet stripes-they look like peppermints but melt in your mouth like the buttermints. Can't wait to make this again!

Crushing the after dinner butter mints was somewhat a challange, best way I found was put them in a gallon ziplock on the floor and use a heavy rolling pin;using your body weight to roll crush them, I blew a hole in my plastic blender container trying to break them up#NotGood :-)

I added about 3/4 cup of sugar and instead of dinner mints (didn't have time to go buy any) used peppermints crushed into a fine powder and added that to the dough. Mmmmmm.... But I am sure that if I used the dinner mints that would have been divine, too. I was also thinking that maybe crushed pieces of Hershey's Candy Cane Kisses would be good in the dough, too. Thank you for this great recipe!!!

I am reposting this recipe to my blog http://kitchenwithjen.blogspot.ca!! I am completely in love with this recipe! I will be adapting it for year round use because it is so simple, and stayes soft and delicious for weeks! Am looking forward to Valentines Day so I can make a cinnamon heart adaptation of this! Thanks :D

Just put these in the oven. The cookie bar "dough" was very dry to the point where I was patting down the dough rather than smoothing it out. I've triple checked the recipe and used the correct quantities. I hope these turn out OK.

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The Busty Baker is a newly 30-something retail slave who spends most of her downtime covered in flour in her tiny apartment kitchen, compulsively checking Twitter, and talking to her cat. Someday she'll figure out what she wants to do with her life, but until then, she'll continue to pawn her baked goods off on anyone who will take them.